What’s so wrong with a bit of LOVE?

This morning I had to take baby girl (OK she’s 6 but she’s still my baby) to get her latest round of vaccinations. As I waited for her to come out of her class, I opened Facebook to take a peek at what was going on around the world. I clearly saw two very distinct types of posts today:

1 – families, lovers and friends declaring their love and wishing people a Happy Valentine’s Day

2 – angry smug or mocking posts around the lines of ‘I don’t need someone to make me feel good about myself’ about Valentine’s Day

This left me wondering, ‘are these are only options on the 14th of February every year?’

I get it. Valentine’s Day seems cheesy and commercial. I’ve been single, heartbroken, newly loved up, engaged, married, and everything in between over the years of this day passing. I’ve had my own ‘only idiots think it is cool to celebrate Valentine’s Day’ thoughts, too. Trust me, I’m not an easy convert to this ‘holiday’.

But something changed in me the last few years. I think LOVE, in all of its forms, deserves more notice than we give it and I no longer find it cheesy to do it once a year, I find it sad we need a reminder!! We’ve somehow forgotten that all love is important to discuss and celebrate. We’ve forgotten to take notice of love and let me tell you, it matters.

Love matters more than hate.

Let me repeat that. Love matters more than hate.

So why don’t we give it the attention it deserves? Why do we make fun of people that choose to use February 14th as an excuse to pause for a moment and say ‘oh yeah, I should spend some time with you focusing on our love’?

In our world right now we are inundated with constant reminders of hate. Hateful elections. Distrust of politicians. Fear-based public votes. Fearfulness of immigrants and refugees. All kinds of HATE and fear around the world are winning the global discourse battle.

We will never beat hate with more hate.

So love each other. You don’t need a husband or wife or partner and a white picket fence to tell someone you love them on Valentine’s Day. You need sincere and honest emotions. You can send a Valentine to a best friend you haven’t seen in awhile. Call your mum and wish her a happy day and tell her you love her. Hug your children and tell them how important love is in the world. Love shouldn’t be ridiculed in whatever form it takes. We have let cynicism and the fear of looking cheesy dictate how we act for far too long.

I’m writing this today, the day AFTER Valentine’s Day but I’m going to remind all of you early February next year to remember this. Love matters more than hate.

3 thoughts on “What’s so wrong with a bit of LOVE?”

On the other hand I don’t need Valentine’s Day to tell my boyfriend I love him. I do that every day.
Most of the Facebook posts I saw were people showing off the flowers/chocolates/stuffed animals they got for Valentine’s Day. One girl apparently got roses AND perfume AND shoes AND taken out for a meal. Every year it seems like a competition to see who got the best gifts. To me that seems to defeat the purpose of “love”. *Sigh*.

Oh geeeeez!! Yeah, I don’t mean gifts, I mean love lol. I think when my husband and I didn’t have kids it was easier to remember to say we loved each other often. Being exhausted parents, we sometimes forget to say it. I don’t need a day either but I think it isn’t a bad thing to have it, either.
I saw some nasty stuff. One in particular: “if you are so insecure you need a day to pretend to have a great relationship then Happy Valentine’s Day to you!” (Insert shocked face here lol)